Ezekiel 44

1 He brought me back through the sanctuary’s east-facing outer gate. It was shut. 2 The Lord told me, 2 “This gate will remain shut. It will not be opened, and no one will pass through it, because the Lord God of Israel will enter through it. It will remain shut.” 3 “The leader will sit in the gate to eat bread before the Lord. He will enter and leave through the gate’s porch.” 4 He brought me through the north-facing gate to the front of the temple. I looked and saw that the Lord’s glory filled the temple, and I fell facedown. 5 The Lord told me, 5 “Son of man, take to heart, look carefully, and listen closely to everything I tell you about all the decrees of the Lord’s temple and all its practices. Pay close attention to every entrance and exit of the holy places.” 6 “Tell the rebellious house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: Enough, house of Israel, of all your lawless deeds!’” 7 “You brought outsiders uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, and they treated it as common while you offered bread, fat, and blood. By all your lawless deeds you broke my covenant.” 8 “You appointed others to keep charge of my sanctuary.” 9 “Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: No outsider uncircumcised in heart or flesh will enter my sanctuary, including any outsider living among the house of Israel.” 10 “The Levites who went far from me when Israel strayed after its devisings will bear their wrongdoing.” 11 “Yet they will serve in my sanctuary as gatekeepers and servants of the temple. They will kill the sacrifices and whole burnt offerings for the people and stand before the people to serve them.” 12 “Because they served the people before their idols and became a punishment for the house of Israel’s wrongdoing, I raised my hand against them, says the Lord God.” 13 “They will not draw near to serve me as priests or approach the holy things of the people of Israel or my most holy things. They will bear the shame of the error they committed.” 14 “They will be assigned to keep charge of the temple, its service, and everything done in it.” 15 “But the Levitical priests descended from Zadok kept charge of my sanctuary when the house of Israel strayed from me. They will draw near to serve me and stand before me to offer the fat and blood in sacrifice, says the Lord God.” 16 “They will enter my sanctuary, approach my table to serve me, and keep my charges.” 17 “When they enter the gates of the inner court, they will wear linen robes. They must not wear wool while serving at the inner court’s gate.” 18 “They will wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They must not bind themselves tightly.” 19 “When they go out to the people in the outer court, they will remove the robes in which they serve and leave them in the rooms of the holy place. They will put on other clothing so they do not make the people holy through their robes.” 20 “They must not shave their heads or pull out their hair, but must keep their heads carefully covered.” 21 “No priest may drink wine when entering the inner court.” 22 “They must not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but a virgin from Israel’s descendants. They may, however, marry a priest’s widow.” 23 “They will teach my people to distinguish holy from common and make known the difference between unclean and clean.” 24 “They will preside over a judgment involving blood and decide it rightly. They will uphold my rules and judge by my judgments. They will keep my practices and my decrees at all my feasts and make my Sabbaths holy.” 25 “They must not approach a human corpse and defile themselves. A priest may do so only for his father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or unmarried sister.” 26 “After he is made clean, he must count seven days for himself.” 27 “Whenever he enters the inner court to serve in the holy place, he must bring an atonement offering, says the Lord God.” 28 “I will be their inheritance. Give them no possession among the people of Israel, because I am their possession.” 29 “They will eat the sacrifices, the offerings for sin, and the offerings for ignorance. Every portion set apart in Israel will belong to them.” 30 “The firstfruits of everything, every firstborn, and every portion set apart from all your firstfruits will belong to the priests. Give your earliest produce to the priest so blessings may rest on your homes.” 31 “The priests must not eat any bird or any of the cattle that has died by itself or been killed by a wild animal.”